


a little broken, a little new

by parxdoxical



Series: where the lovelight gleams [2]
Category: Chicago Fire
Genre: Andy's in the story what did you expect, Christmas, I Was Drunk When I Wrote This, I am a sucker for Matt & Kelly & Andy being a little family on their own, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Matt Casey deserves a hug, More introspection than anything else, Pre-Canon, i really was, it's what they all deserve, these two idiots better give him one
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-13
Updated: 2021-03-13
Packaged: 2021-03-21 04:08:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,303
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30015912
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/parxdoxical/pseuds/parxdoxical
Summary: Christmas 2003or:Matt and the two idiots he calls his best friends
Relationships: Andrew "Andy" Darden/Heather Darden (mentioned), Matthew Casey & Andrew "Andy" Darden & Kelly Severide
Series: where the lovelight gleams [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2080767
Comments: 2
Kudos: 5





	a little broken, a little new

**Author's Note:**

> Hello again! 
> 
> So this took me a long time to write and I don't even know why. But here it is now and I hope you enjoy this little sneak peek into the life of our three favourite 51 idiots! 
> 
> Title is from Sleeping at Last's "North" which again: big recommendation!

**Christmas 2003**

_A little broken, a little new.  
We are the impact and the glue.  
Capable of more than we know,  
We call this fixer upper home._

The door to their apartment was only half-way closed and even from his position down the hallway, Matt Casey could hear the loud voices of his two roommates echoing towards him. It made him roll his eyes with fond exasperation as he pocketed his key and crossed the hallway to join them in whatever dumb foolery they had cooked up again now. 

It was strange, how things had gone and where they had led him. 

Starting at the Fire Academy a year prior, he never would have thought that this was where he'd end up for his candidacy. Now, he wouldn't want it any other way. 

Entering the apartment, he set down the two bags of groceries and toed off his shoes at the front door. From the small living room they shared, he could hear Andy and Kelly still shouting at each other and for a moment, Matt contemplated simply leaving again. 

Then the two idiots came tumbling out of the living room, into their small hallway, probably having heard the door opening. Kelly had Andy in a headlock, dragging him along, before he looked up at Matt and grinned broadly. 

"Matty! Finally! You have to settle something for us!" he called out and Matt raised his eyebrows. Andy's face was bright red and he was struggling against Kelly's tight grip. 

"Can that wait until you're not killing Andy here anymore?" Matt asked, shrugging out of his coat. Kelly looked down at their friend as if seeing him for the first time before letting him come up for air and casually stepping out of the way when Andy tried to take a half-hearted swing at him. 

"Okay. You can help me with the groceries while you're explaining what's going on. Sound good?" Matt proposed as he picked up one of the bags again and stepped past his friends who were already trying to go at it again. Shoving at each other like two schoolboys, Kelly reached for the bag before both he and Andy followed Matt into the kitchen. 

Moving in with Kelly and Andy had not really been a conscious decision and Matt, even now, after a few months of the three of them living together, wasn't always sure if it was the right one. 

He had met both of them during the first few weeks at the Academy, Kelly the son of firefighting legend Benny Severide, with a chip on his shoulder practically the size of a boulder, Andy easy-going but determined and hard-working, the two of them inseparable. Andy had taken one look at the anxious-looking 18-year-old before him and decided to become his friend. It had stuck from then on. 

Then last summer, when they had all graduated from the Academy and Matt had crashed at their place after the ceremony, the celebrations, the drinks neither Andy nor Kelly had been able to stand seeing their best friend make his way to his lonely, cold apartment. So only a few days after that, just shortly before they all got their placements as candidates, they had shown up at Matt's place with moving boxes in their arms and shit-eating grins on their faces.   
They hadn't taken no for an answer and so Matt had, begrudgingly at first but happier to leave them be with each passing moment, helped them heave his sparse belongings onto the bed of Andy's truck. 

It wasn't even two hours later, that all three of them had found their way onto Andy and Kelly's - and now Matt's, as it seemed - couch, beers in hand and grins still firmly in place. 

And now Christmas had rolled around. 

Somehow it had snuck up on Matt without him noticing. It shouldn't surprise him as much as it did, probably. Being a candidate was exhilarating and everything he had ever wished for but it was hard work and in between shifts he had started helping out one of the other guys on his Truck doing some construction work on the side. It was good money and Matt was a quick learner but it didn't leave him with much time to ponder anything else. 

Secretly, he was glad. When he'd woken up to the first cold day of the season and snuck a conscious glance at the calendar, the fact that it was almost Thanksgiving already had caught him totally off-guard. After that, Christmas shouldn't have come as such a surprise to him. 

It still did. 

And with Christmas came the memories. 

Matt was under no illusions that his Christmases had ever been what other families would describe as happy. They had been tense and cold, with Christie spending less and less time actually at home during the holidays and their mother trying desperately to keep her family together at least a little bit. 

Because that had turned out so well. 

Matt's father had been dead for over two years now. Some days, it still felt like a fever dream. 

Matt deposited his grocery bag on the kitchen table and got to work on unpacking it, pushing away the thoughts of his family. He had Kelly and Andy now. 

All three of them would be spending Christmas in their small apartment. Matt had the fleeting suspicion that his friends were only staying for his sake but for once he allowed himself to be too selfish to say anything about it. It felt nice, knowing that there would be people there for him on Christmas. They were going to get themselves a small, fake tree and decorate it with the horrible ornaments Andy's grandma had bought him, Kelly would cook for them, being the only one of the three who actually knew how to cook anything decent that would qualify as a holiday meal and they'd get each other small presents because after all they were still broke 20-year-olds. 

Matt wouldn't have it any other way. 

Kelly fell into one of the chairs around their kitchen table and watched Matt and Andy unpack and put away the groceries. Matt eventually got him to help by throwing a head of lettuce at him that hit him square in the face. 

"Okay, so what was the thing you needed me to settle for you?" he asked while trying to fit a stack of frozen pizzas into the freezer. 

He could almost hear his two roommates look at each other behind his back and when he turned around, they were still having one of their silent conversations that Matt couldn't help but be excluded from. 

"Alright, so-" Kelly started but Andy sharply shook his head at him and turned to Matt with a smile on his face. 

"Nothing. It's all good." 

Matt frowned at them, not buying it for one moment. But Andy only elbowed Kelly in the side and gave him a pointed look and Kelly shrugged with a grin and so Matt didn't question it. 

And so on Christmas Day they ended up sitting on their couch with their beers, their stomachs full of the frankly delicious food Kelly had made them and a stupid Christmas movie playing on their tiny television. 

Matt would find out years later, after weeks and weeks of animosity between Kelly and himself following Andy's death, on one Christmas Eve the two spent huddled up together on the roof of 51, that Andy had rejected Heather's offer to spend Christmas with her and her family to instead spend it with his two best friends. To spend it with Matt and Kelly, the two people he knew would feel the absence of loved ones most strongly. 

That Christmas Day, they became a family. 

That Christmas Day, that little apartment became home.


End file.
